What is community housing?

Community housing is a form of public housing working alongside private housing in the open market. Typically these are not-for-profit groups meeting housing need through a range of social and affordable rental and home ownership options. They provide an alternative to the public housing provided by Housing New Zealand and local authority housing.

They provide around 13,000 homes throughout New Zealand.

"The distinction between community housing organisations and other housing providers is that we provide more than just the bricks and mortar. We provide warm, safe and dry homes where tenants know we care about what happens in their day-to-day lives. And where strong connections to communities are created and good tenant outcomes are the norm.”

- Scott Figenshow, CEO, Community Housing Aotearoa

Read about our plan to address New Zealand's social and affordable housing shortage by going to the Our Place pages

In your area you will find a range of community housing services. They may be provided by iwi or Pacific groups, they might provide tenancy advice services, or they might be a local community housing trust. They provide warm, safe, dry, affordable housing in your community through a range of housing options that include: emergency housing, affordable rental, wrap-around services or home ownership assistance. You can see how housing options fit together on the housing continuum.

The community housing sector in New Zealand is small compared to other countries and we know there are many New Zealanders who still need access to good housing. So we have a plan to achieve this and a vision for all new Zealanders. Our Vision is all New Zealanders well-housed and a goal of 50,000 more homes provided by 2020.

A vision for New Zealand

We have a vision of all New Zealanders well-housed, where choices are available across the range of housing that meet the varied needs of any household, at a price they can truly afford, today and tomorrow.

We see a future where mixed-income, mixed tenure communities are the norm, with high quality homes that are warm, dry, easy to take care of, and inexpensive to run and maintain.

These are homes that enhance health and well-being, homes we can be proud of, in communities that people feel part of, and where every person can have a stake in their future, whether they rent or own their home.